Kuyt hat-trick seals Man Utd loss to Liverpool

Published: Monday, March 7, 2011, 13:44 [IST]

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London, Mar 7: Liverpool beat arch-rival Manchester United 3-1 at Anfield on Mar 6 and the star for them was Dirk Kuyt who scored a brilliant hat-trick. The Dutch forward's treble that took the match away from Manchester United has left a serious dent on their title hopes.

This was United's second loss in a span of seven days. The other one was a 2-1 loss to Chelsea on Mar 1.

Kuyt who scored the first hat-trick for Liverpool against Manchester United since Sept 1990, struck his first two goals in quick succession in the first half of the game. While for Manchester United, the only goal was scored by Javier Hernandez.

The loss has now put United only three points clear of second placed Arsenal and that too despite having played one game more.

Nothing went right for Manchester United, as they had to start the match without their first-choice centre-backs Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand. Liverpool's Suarez surged ahead of three United defenders before passing the ball between Van der Sar's leg, which was gleefully accepted by Kuyt, who in turn simply directed the ball to the goal-post.

Kuyt, then registered the second goal when he headed a misdirected header from Manchester's Nani. He was in the act again when he applied finishing touches to a Suarez free kick and sealed the match 3-1.

Thus was Liverpool's first victory against Manchester United in four attempts.